John A. Brommel, 53, a resident of Austin, Texas, and the owner of a taxidermy business, pleaded guilty today to violating the Lacey Act’s false labeling provision by knowingly selling horns from a black rhinoceros to non-Texas residents and falsifying the bill of sale to conceal the fact that the actual purchasers were not residents of Texas.

“Wildlife smuggling is a transnational crime that knows no borders and requires an international response,” said Assistant Attorney General Cruden. “Cooperation between the United States and Canadian law enforcement was crucial to cracking this case. The United States greatly appreciates the assistance of Environment Canada in bringing Guan to justice. International law enforcement collaboration is essential if we are to prevent elephant and rhino species from being extinguished in our own lifetime.”

I am honored to represent the United States here today, along with my colleagues from the United States Department of State and the Department of the Interior. It is a privilege to join you here to discuss the work we are all doing to combat the increasing global crisis posed by international wildlife trafficking.

MTU America Inc. (MTU), a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG, will implement an auditing program to ensure proper emissions testing and compliance with federal emission standards for its heavy-duty diesel non-road engines as part of a settlement to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.

In a settlement with the United States and the states of Alabama and Oklahoma, Continental Carbon Company has agreed to install pollution control technology that will significantly cut emissions of harmful air pollutants at manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today. The settlement will resolve claims that Houston-based Continental violated the Clean Air Act by modifying their facilities in a way that caused the release of excess sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx).

The Department of Justice today filed a stipulation of settlement resolving civil claims against Washakie Renewable Energy LLC (Washakie) for violations of the Renewable Fuel Program under the Clean Air Act. The stipulation of settlement was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. A complaint stating the government’s claims was filed at the same time, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

Michigan resident Lip Bor Ng, also known as Paul Wu, 52, pleaded guilty before Judge Mark A. Goldsmith to a one-count conspiracy information, which charged him with conspiring with others to knowingly submit false and misleading export information to the United States, to fraudulently and knowingly export electronic waste in violation of United States law and to export hazardous waste without filing a notification of intent to export with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

American Pallet Recycling, L.L.C. (APR) and its former president and owner, Raymond Viola, have pleaded guilty and been sentenced in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York to criminal violations related to the falsification of certificate stamps in violation of the Plant Protection Act, the Justice Department and the Department of Agriculture announced. As part of the plea agreement, the company will pay a fine of $100,000. Viola will pay $1,000 and serve three years of probation and has relinquished the business to his son.

A settlement announced today between the U.S. and Total Petroleum Puerto Rico Corp. (Total Puerto Rico) resolves Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) violations alleged at 31 gas stations in Puerto Rico and four gas stations in the U.S. Virgin Islands that contain underground storage tanks (USTs) owned by Total Puerto Rico. These USTs typically hold large quantities of gasoline and can cause significant environmental damage if allowed to leak. Total Puerto Rico has agreed to pay a $426,000 civil penalty, implement compliance measures valued at approximately $1 million and undertake a supplemental environmental project (SEP) consisting of a centralized monitoring system estimated to cost approximately $600,000.

Carbofin S.p.A., an Italian domiciled company that owned and operated the M/T Marigola was sentenced to pay an overall criminal penalty of $2.75 million by the Honorable Virginia M. Hernandez Covington for knowingly falsifying the vessel’s oil record book in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), announced the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

A former general manager of the Platinum Creek Mine in Platinum, Alaska, pleaded guilty today to three felony violations of the federal Clean Water Act, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler of the District of Alaska.

Mark Bryan, 59, of New Market, Maryland, and his Delaware-based seafood wholesale business, Harbor House Seafood, were sentenced on Friday in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, for trafficking in illegally possessed oysters, creating false health and safety records, and conspiracy charges.

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Michael D. Hayden, 43, of Tilghman Island, Maryland, today to 18 months in prison to be followed by six months of home detention and three years of supervised release for conspiring to violate the Lacey Act and defraud the United States through the illegal harvesting and sale of 185,925 pounds of striped bass. Judge Bennett also ordered that Hayden pay $498,000 in restitution and fined $40,000 to the state of Maryland for the damage caused to the striped bass.

Three oyster harvesters and dealers, an employee and a related business were sentenced yesterday in federal court in Camden, New Jersey. Todd Reeves, Thomas Reeves, Renee Reeves, of Port Norris, New Jersey, and their oyster dealer company, Shellrock LLC, were sentenced for their roles in creating false oyster records, trafficking in illegally possessed oysters, obstructing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of public health and safety, and conspiring to commit those crimes. Kenneth Bailey, of Heislerville, New Jersey, was sentenced for creating false oyster records and trafficking in illegal oysters.

Recognizing that wildlife trafficking is an urgent conservation and national security threat, the Departments of Justice, State and the Interior today unveiled the implementation plan for the U.S.National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The agencies are co-chairs of the president’s Task Force on Combating Wildlife Trafficking which comprises seventeen federal agencies and offices.

A historic settlement reached with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Kerr McGee has gone into effect, allowing funds to be disbursed for cleanups across the country, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York, and Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer sentenced five people to prison terms in federal court in Greeneville, Tennessee, late yesterday for conspiring to commit Clean Air Act offenses in connection with the illegal removal and disposal of asbestos-containing materials at the former Liberty Fibers Plant in Hamblen County, Tennessee, the Justice Department announced. A&E Salvage had purchased the plant out of bankruptcy in order to salvage metals which remained in the plant after it ceased operations.

Thirteen commercial fishermen in North Carolina and Georgia have been charged in federal court in Raleigh, North Carolina, for their role in the illegal harvest and sale and false reporting of approximately 90,000 pounds of Atlantic striped bass from federal waters off the coast of North Carolina during 2009 and 2010, the Justice Department announced today. The average retail value of the illegally harvested striped bass is approximately $1.1 million.

Elite Estate Buyers Inc., doing business as Elite Decorative Arts, an auction house located in Boynton Beach, Florida, and the company’s president and owner, Christopher Hayes, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Miami to an illegal wildlife trafficking and smuggling conspiracy in which the auction house sold rhinoceros horns and objects made from rhino horn, elephant ivory and coral that were smuggled from the United States to China.

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a proposed settlement with Pechiney Plastic Packaging Inc. (Pechiney), Albéa Americas Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Citigroup Inc., and Rexam Beverage Can Company regarding the cleanup of the Pohatcong Valley Groundwater Contamination Superfund Site in Washington Borough, Washington Township, Franklin Township and Greenwich Township in Warren County, New Jersey. The Pohatcong site is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE).

Andrew J. Zarauskas, a New Jersey resident, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for illegally importing and trafficking in narwhal tusks and associated money laundering crimes, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Zarauskas was also ordered to forfeit $85,089, six narwhal tusks and one narwhal skull. In addition, Zarauskas was ordered to pay a fine of $7,500. His prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

Randy Jones, 44, a former corrosion coordinator for Shell Pipeline Company L.P. (Shell), pleaded guilty in Milwaukee today to failing to conduct bi-monthly voltage readings and an annual survey of a pipeline used to transport jet fuel in violation of the Pipeline Safety Act (PSA) and making a false statement to the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of Arkansas today announced that the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, will spend more than $200 million over the next 12 years on upgrades to its sewer collection and treatment system to reduce discharges of raw sewage and other pollutants into local waterways. Under a settlement filed in federal court in the Western District of Arkansas, Fort Smith will also pay a $300,000 civil penalty and spend $400,000 on a program to help qualified low-income residential property owners to repair or replace defective private sewer lines that connect to the city collection system.